1. Technical Field
The invention is related to a system and process for dynamically arranging and displaying data objects or “information” on a display device based on priorities associated with each individual element of the information.
2. Related Art
By way of background, schemes for displaying data or information, either entered by a user or retrieved from a database or other electronic data source, typically use a predefined placement or arrangement of the information within a window on a computer display device. Consequently, where specific elements of the data are not available, the display device typically includes blank areas corresponding to the predefined placement for that missing data. Further, many of the available data elements may be used for information that has little or no importance to a given user, and thus, even if the user had the information available, it is unlikely that he or she would take the time to enter such data, or to use it if it was retrieved from a database or other electronic data source. In addition, data labels associated with each data element are also typically displayed in predefined positions whether or not the data associated with those labels is available. Thus, in such situations, valuable display space is simply wasted by displaying unimportant information or by displaying data labels associated with unavailable information. Consequently, a display device implementing such schemes tends to appear overly cluttered and complicated, while including blank areas that may be aesthetically unpleasant to a user or viewer of the display device.
For example, as Illustrated by FIG. 1, one prior art electronic address book allows users to view properties for each contact in the address book. The property display for a given contact includes a “Summary” page of predefined information for the contact, and has data labels or headers, such as, for example, name, e-mail address, home phone number, pager number, mobile phone number, web page address, etc. Often, users fail to populate the information for contacts in address book, because it can be time consuming, because it is not important, or because they simply do not have the information available to complete each of the myriad fields. However, as illustrated by FIG. 1, headers for information that is not available are still shown. Consequently, while the “Summary” page illustrated by FIG. 1 may be substantially blank, it still appears overly complicated by numerous headers having no associated data.
Other existing schemes force a user to scroll or tab through various data fields or pages to find or display relevant information. For example, where an individual data field includes or supports multiple data elements, typically, a single element is displayed in association with a data label associated with the data field. Therefore, the user is forced to manually scroll through a list of the remaining data elements to view or act on other data elements within the data field. Similar schemes provide a pop-up window or similar system for individual data fields or categories that, when activated by a user, open up to display the information associated with that data field. Such pop-up windows typically also include data labels and blank spaces corresponding to missing data and, as described above, such schemes also tend to appear overly cluttered and complicated.
One example of a prior art scheme which forces a user to tab through various pages to find or display relevant information is illustrated in FIG. 2, which shows a “contact card” or property display for single contact in another prior art electronic address book. Specifically, as illustrated by FIG. 2, a “Name” page supports data elements including first and last name, display name, e-mail address, nickname, and data fields for work, home, fax, pager, and cellular phone numbers. Other pages, including “Contact,” “Notes,” and “Conferencing” pages, supporting other data fields, are displayed by user selection of the tabs representing those pages. Consequently, where the user wants to view or enter information supported by these other pages, he must manually switch between them. Further, in such schemes, headers for specific elements of information are provided to facilitate and organize user entry of the corresponding data, whether or not that information is available. However, as discussed above, users often fail to populate the information associated with contacts in address book, because it can be time consuming, because it is not important, or because they simply do not have the information available to complete each of the myriad fields. Consequently, as clearly illustrated by FIG. 2, such pages may be substantially blank, yet still appear overly complicated by numerous headers having no associated data.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for dynamically displaying a summary of available information, without including data labels or information headers for information that is not available, in order to minimize wasted space. Further, because some information is not important to a user, or some information is less important than other information, the system and method for dynamically displaying a summary of available information should also arrange or display specific elements of the information in accordance with a level of importance associated with that information.